cannonball cave, Missouri July 2011

[diverdarren]

Dove cannonball day before yesterday (7-3-11) with highflowdiver(Kal). Lake Wappapello is now back to summer pool depths, flow is minimal at the entrance restriction, vis in the cave is a sweet 35 ft., and the corps of engineers has run a box blade up the entrance road so getting in and out is much easier. Cave fauna has returned including those weird little salamanders that we have seen at virtually all depths. They seem as surprised to see us as we are to see them. Another point of interest on this dive right now is the hot weather. Would advise to dive early, like about sunrise!

[scububa]

Any interest in diving this weekend?
I plan on being down there and have a buddy for Sunday, but open all day Saturday and Friday afernoon/eve.
I dove it the weekend before.

[Scuba Coop]

High flow Kal??? Where did that come from Darran? Sorry to have missed out on the fun. I'm going this Sunday for sure.

[scububa]

Just back from diving with Scuba Coop at Cannonball.

We took the trailer down to Sam A. Baker and it was an entertaining weekend. Friday and Saturday evenings were nice, actually cooled down nicely. Saturday and Sunday were hot.

Joan and I did a nice 3 hr hike in the Mudlick trail area. I got a new pair of Vibram 5-toes Trek Sports. I haven't walked on so many rocks since I backpacked in the Grand Canyon. The Trek Sports made a big difference over the KSO's.

Saturday, Scuba Coop came over with his Mrs. S C , Kathy to meet Joan. We had a nice visit. Went down to the gravel bar at the river by camp. We grilled some burgers and plotted the next days dive.

We did 80 minutes in the main tunnel. We swam it 3 times, switching off lead diver per plan. Coop is looking at doing the Grand Traverse at Peacock in a few weeks, so we tried to simulate the run time per my numbers from my log on the traverse dive.

Vis was pretty good. As good if not better than two weeks ago. 25+. Flow was similar also, maybe a bit less. Temp 58 deg.

We started loading up about 7:00 am and hit the water about 8:00 ish. Coop established the anchor in the opening, started the dive at 8:24. It was 71 deg when I got to the dock, it was warm getting suited up, and by the time we got back to the dock at 10:30 it was 91 deg.

DiverDarren and Kal had staged gear down the hill andwere getting ready to dive as we pulled out. Coop has dove with them, but it was my first time meeting them.